A Minute With: Jada Pinkett Smith talks 'black girl magic'

Reuters Staff

2 Min Read

LONDON (Reuters) - Jada Pinkett Smith stars with Regina Hall, Queen Latifah and Tiffany Haddish in the hit movie “Girl’s Trip”, a comedy that features four black women in the lead roles - an unusual proposition in Hollywood.

Reuters spoke to Pinkett Smith this week about her success at the U.S. box office and her film’s catchphrase “black girl magic”. Here are excerpts of the interview.

Q: How does it feel having the top-performing comedy at the box office this year?

A?: It feels good, you know, for a lot of different reasons and I mean more so than for the box office.

I just love what the “Girl’s Trip” movement has been about. It’s just that you can see just the power of women and once we throw power to each other ... Even though this is a movie starring four African American women, it’s not a black movie in the sense that it’s not only for black women or black people.

Q: What does “black girl magic” mean to you?

A: It’s really being able to be accepted and embraced in all of your blackness, because you know especially in this industry black women are constantly told: “Do not be black.”

That’s whether (it’s) in how we behave, how we speak, how we look, what our hair looks like, you know, and the fact that this is a movie that’s starring black women, and it’s a movie that’s told through our lens, you know what I’m saying?

And so through our culture, so that other people can come and embrace our culture, and embrace black culture within their culture, within their lens, and enjoy it. That’s “Black Girl Magic”.

Q: Were there any lines you thought you couldn’t cross when it came to comedy?

A: I think that’s the other particular magic to this movie, that as women we’re giving ourselves the license once again just to cut loose, you know, to own our sexuality and to own our lives and to be autonomous and that’s a beautiful thing to watch.